If you want a simple and fun gift to give your special girl/guy on Valentine's Day, something quick and easy for your friends or if you just want to have something cool to wear around your neck or draped from your ears, simple handmade jewellery can be pretty addictive. Here are five ideas to throw around if you feel like trying your hand at making your own jewellery at home.

Mini-Sculpts

You can get a brick of polymer clay for the change in your pocket right now and use it to sculpt just about anything you could possibly want. You could make your sister's favorite cartoon character or a yellow submarine for the music fan in your life. Just get the appropriate hooks to put in the top, bake, and you've got unique, one of a kind, handmade earrings or pendants.

Recycled Wire Jewellery

Reduce, reuse, recycle. If you have any spare wire hanging around, even if it's just an extra long paperclip, a pair of needlenose pliers can keep that metallic content out of the landfills and turn it into a nice little piece of art, instead. You might want to wear some thin leather gloves if you're not too experienced with wire sculpting, though, as it does have a tendency to snap around and poke at the fingertips. Wire sculpts are a great way to make cool pins and rings.

Beading

The cool thing about beading is that you really don't need anything but a spool of thread and a handful of beads to get started. It's really just about the easiest way in the world to make jewellery, leaving you free to just play around and figure out what your unique, one of a kind necklaces are going to look like.

Homemade Beads

The only thing better than a handmade beaded necklace is a beaded necklace with handmade beads. Take some polymer or other materials and make various shapes out of them and you can simply poke a hole through the center with a sewing pin or needle and you have a cool, completely original bead to use in your creations.

Seashells and Natural Artifacts

This all depends on where you live and what kind of natural artifacts you can find. If you live near the beach, then seashells should be quite easy to find. If you live in a landlocked state, you still might be able to find turquoise, quartz and other cool stones and natural artifacts in your own backyard - have a look around, it beats sitting in watching high definition TV!

The main thing when making handmade jewellery is just to be imaginative and be willing to experiment. What looks like junk to one person might look like the start of a fun new project to a jewellery maker.